Pakistan warns US 'to restrict CIA activities' - report
Pakistan has asked the US to reduce the number of CIA agents in the country and to limit drone strikes along the Afghan border, US media reports say.
The reports quote unnamed officials and come as US and Pakistani spy chiefs met at the CIA's headquarters in Virginia.
An official spokesman described those meetings as "productive".
Relations between the countries have struggled to recover after a row over a CIA contractor who shot dead two men in the city of Lahore earlier this year.
Last month a Pakistani court freed Raymond Davis after acquitting him of two counts of murder, when relatives of the two men he shot dead pardoned him in court.
Mr Davis maintained the men had been trying to rob him.
The case stoked anti-American feeling across Pakistan and led to angry demonstrations - particularly when it emerged that he worked for the CIA. Hardline religious parties were keen to see him punished.
Army demand
About 335 US personnel, CIA officers and contractors and special operations force personnel were being asked to leave the country, the New York Times reported. It quoted an unnamed Pakistani official said to be closely involved in that decision.
Pakistan also wants the removal of CIA contractors on assignments that Pakistan have not been informed about, Pakistani officials told the paper.
The officials estimated that would account for 25%-40% of CIA staff in the country. The reduction in CIA operations appears to have been personally requested by Pakistan's army chief Gen Ashfaq Kayani.
Pakistan is also demanding restrictions in the US drone campaign aimed at eliminating militants in Pakistan's restive north-west, another unnamed Pakistani official told the New York Times.
US drone attacks have escalated in the region since President Barack Obama took office. More than 100 raids were reported in the area last year.
The US does not routinely confirm it is conducting drone operations in Pakistan, but analysts say only American forces have the capacity to deploy such aircraft in the region.
Drone attacks are hugely unpopular with the Pakistani public. Correspondents say they have the tacit approval of the authorities, although Pakistani leaders deny secretly supporting the strikes.
Many militants, some of them senior, have been killed in the raids, but hundreds of civilians have also died.
Candid interview
The continuing strains in relations emerged as CIA director Leon Panetta and the head of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence directorate, Ahmed Shuja Pasha, met for discussions.
According to unnamed US officials quoted by the New York Times, no request was made at that meeting for reductions in CIA personnel.
"Director Panetta and General Pasha held productive discussions today and the CIA-ISI relationship remains on solid footing," Preston Golson, a CIA spokesman, told Reuters news agency.
"The United States and Pakistan share a wide range of mutual interests and today's exchange emphasised the need to continue to work closely together, including on our common fight against terrorist networks that threaten both countries," he said.
These reports follow a candid interview that Pakistan's President, Asif Ali Zardari, gave to the Guardian newspaper on Monday saying that the Afghan war was "destabilising Pakistan".
He also rejected a recent White House report which said Pakistan lacked its own plan to fight insurgents in the country, adding that most US politicians lacked an understanding of the situation.
The BBC's Syed Shoaib Hasan in Karachi says that Mr Zardari's interview comes at a time when many in Pakistan feel that the US continues to point fingers at the country's instability, while directly contributing to it with its actions along the Afghan border.
Mr Zardari's statements are likely to meet with approval from Pakistan's security establishment, which increasingly feels the US is taking its Pakistani alliance for granted, our correspondent said.
BBC News - Pakistan warns US 'to restrict CIA activities' - report
